The Eurovision Song Contest: Sixty Years of Europe's History

Vienna is hosting the sixtieth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in the same year that Austria is marking several major historical anniversaries, including seventy years since the end of the Second World War and twenty years since Austria's accession to the European Union. What can the Eurovision Song Contest teach us about the history of postwar Europe and European integration? How have Europeans viewed each other through the Eurovision Song Contest in the last sixty years?

Dean Vuletic

Dr. Dean Vuletic is a historian who specialises in contemporary Europe. He is currently a Marie Curie Fellow in the Department of East European History at the University of Vienna, where he is working on the project "Eurovision: A History of Europe through Popular Music." He is writing a book and teaching a course about the significance of the Eurovision Song Contest for the history of Europe. Dr. Vuletic's research has been published in several books and journals, and he has been interviewed about it in various European media outlets. Dr. Vuletic has also taught at Columbia University, New York University and the European University Institute, where he was a Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellow from 2010 to 2012. He was awarded his doctorate in history from Columbia University in 2010, and he also has a Master's degree in East European Studies from Yale University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and a Bachelor's degree in European Studies from the Australian National University.